That would count me out, I'm afraid.
If you check my Jonsbo V8 review you will see that vented side panels are not always the best way to go. If your GPU or CPU cooler sitting very close to the panels, you will benefit from vented panels. If you have enough clearance it's better to set up the case with closed panels so you get a real wind tunnel.
LONG DISCUSSION ABOUT SIDE PANELS (Should we keep or remove them?)
Solid Panels are thermally underperforming
in certain key situations, based on the current testing... they are really good for some things,
but have trouble with GPU's that have side-venting fins. This has to do with the geometry of interacting flows. "Wind Tunnel" case setups are useful with semi-passive heatsinks (See: Rackmount Servers, Mac Pro), and with actively cooled components who's vent flow is not fighting global flow in the case.
The main issue with Solid Side Panels, and Bottom --> Top airflow (or Top --> Bottom Airflow) in Winter One is that GPU's which vent out the "Side" (and this is *very* common) like the FE Versions of Nvidia cards, and a lot of partner models, have trouble exhausting hot air, which actually hurts thermals.
Here's a rare WinterCharm Doodle to explain what's going on:
In situation A, you get better thermals than an open air test bench! However, the problem is that, with solid side panels, and one-way airflow,
In situation B you get thermal throttling. The issue is the area I highlighted with a ⚠ in the doodle.
Here, you have the case fans fighting the GPU cooler's outflow, and winning.
These types of GPU Coolers are very common,
because they're generally efficient (short air runs in a fin stack is a good thing!). Most "FE" designs and even most partner cards use this type of "side vent" GPU Here's a real image so you can see what I'm talking about:
Situation B GPU Design (VERY COMMON)
SITUATION A GPU DESIGN (Rare for axial, Common in Blower Cards)
So now we have to consider what we do.
Solid Side Panels (
This includes glass panels!)
- They create a powerful wind tunnel effect.
- cool Type A GPUs really well
- hurt temps on Type B GPU Coolers (the majority on the market)
- You have to use lower profile CPU coolers.
- Limits you to 2-slot or 2.5 slot cards (can't use 3 slot).
- Hurt Radiator Efficiency, by feeding warmer air to the second Radiator.
Vented Side Panels:
- Support both GPU types
- Allow 3-slot GPUs.
- Have Less "wind tunnel effect"
- Help GPU Coolers that are Type B (most common on the market),
- Do not harm performance on Type A coolers
- Allow you to give each radiator Fresh Air
After Reading all this, and understanding the problems,
Should we still keep solid side panels as an option in the design?? (please discuss)
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Mini DTX Support?? (No -- Proper Support Will Increase Volume to 19L)
If dimensions are being changed for the 3090 & for dual 280 rads & 25mm thick fans, might there be hope for the ASUS Crosshair VIII Impact mDTX motherboard fitting in the chassis...?!?
The issue being the 82mm (from the mobo PCB) tall SO-DIMM.2 riser card...
Hey, i am interested in this case since the beginning of this thread, but i also have to fit the ASUS Crosshair VIII Impact mDTX motherboard with dual 240/280 rads inside this case, with the riser card for the m.2 drives of course.
So when you already want to support the 3090 monster, you should also consider this
Supporting the 3090 and 280mm radiators with 30mm fans, only increased dimensions by 0.5cm in each direction: to 32 x 30 x 16cm, taking Winter One from
14.4 --> 15.4L (or 16.3 if you count "protrusions").
Supporting Mini DTX with dual 280's would add 20mm to width and 30mm to height. It would increase dimensions to 32 x 33 x 18cm (19L), just to accommodate a single niche spec, $400 motherboard. This is not a good tradeoff. The 3090 is at least going to be a somewhat common workstation card, and the dimensional tradeoffs were relatively modest.
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Hardware Labs GTS 280 Radiator Support? (YES!)
Note. HWL 240/280 rads a bit bigger, wider then others.
Hardware Labs rads would be my first choice for a water-cooling project...
Their crossflow rads are also a bit larger (length) than their standard rads...
One of the Beta Testers did specifically ask me to support the GTS 280 from HardwareLabs. It's one of the best performing radiators in its class. I can confirm we will be supporting it ☺. However, with a Radiator Length Limit of 315mm, the x-flow rads (326 mm) will be far too long. I'm finishing up website changes and they'll go live soon, including part compatibility stuff. Stay tuned for that.
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Tempered Glass?? (Will Look Into It for Future Versions)
Also i would love to see optional tempered glass side panels, because vented side panels are not needed when go full watercooling and looks nice
Vented Side Panels *still* perform better when water-cooling, because each radiator gets independent airflow. Yes tempered glass is pretty, but it has all the downsides of solid side panels (see above), while also being
very breakable. Because it's so commonly requested, I'll consider it for future batches of Winter One,
but it's better to keep it simple for a first launch. 
